Victrex Invests in PEEK Composites

Polyaryletherketones’ UK-based supplier Victrex (U.S. office in Conshohocken, Penn.) is poised to invest up to $22.7 million in further downstream manufacturing to support identified programs in the industrial and medical sectors. Included is a new PEEK composite facility for unidirectional (UD) tape, and additional manufacturing capability for medical trauma plate applications at its UK headquarters—investments that tie-in with recent product launches.

 

UD tape is being used for Victrex’ partnership with UK-based Magma Global for oil and gas program that focuses on Magma’s m-pipe—a high-strength, flexible and spoolable polymer carbon pipe which is 90% lighter than steel in water, is stronger than steel, is highly durable, corrosion resistant to seawater, CO2 and sour gas. Meanwhile, trauma plates are composed of the high-performance composite PEEK-Optima Ultra-Reinforced available from the company’s medical division—Invibio Biomaterial Solutions. Cleared regulatory device predicates in the U.S. and Europe now enable medical device manufacturers to more easily expand their trauma range beyond metal technologies. PEEK-Optima trauma plates offer 50x better fatigue resistance compared to metal, x-ray translucency to facilitate fracture repair bone alignment, and stress transfer characteristics that may accelerate the healing process and address the sizeable cases of poor fracture repair or device failures that can occur in metal-based options.